Meet the 2022-2023 teaching, advising award winners
The UF Warrington College of Business is proud to announce its four winners of its annual Teaching/Advising Awards. Robert Emerson is the recipient of the Undergraduate Teaching Award and Michelle Bloom is the recipient of the Undergraduate Advising Award. On the graduate side, Michael Ricci is the recipient of the Graduate Teaching Award and Lena Rabe is the recipient of the Graduate Advising Award.
Robert Emerson
Emerson, Huber Hurst professor, came to the Warrington College of Business in 1988. His research interests include comparative law, franchising, ethics, attorneys, contracts and dispute resolution. Emerson is Advisory Editor of the American Business Law Journal and previously served in various editorial board positions, including as Editor-in-Chief, for five years. He has published several dozen articles in the top-tier law journals, written a number of books and book chapters, presented at hundreds of conferences and guest-lectured and visited at dozens of universities worldwide and has testified as an expert in numerous legal proceedings and before Congress.
“There are so many wonderful business professors,” said Prof. Emerson, “and to be the one chosen for this award leaves me extremely grateful. I think the results show there is value in my unorthodox lectures, with costumes and drama and humor for topics often viewed as unrelentingly staid and tedious. But there is much more to my career than the fun that the students and I have in class. To make a difference in students’ lives with my teaching and counsel, and to effectuate some change in law or legal processes with my research work and presentations, is so rewarding.”
Throughout his career, Emerson has received multiple Best Paper awards, including one from the International Society of Franchising – the leading global multidisciplinary association of professors dedicated to all research on franchising, from fields such as accounting, economics, entrepreneurship, marketing, strategic management, and information systems to internationalization, finance and law. He has also received eight awards from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business and dozens of awards for specific subjects and other conferences. He has served as an officer of the ALSB’s Interdisciplinary Section since 2019, and among other things, was for many years the Director of the ALSB’s Research Consortium. Emerson also served as President of the Southeastern regional organization of the business law academy.
He has also won 22 teaching awards, including the University of Florida’s Teacher of the Year Award 16 times and the ALSB’s John Bonsignore Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Legal Studies Education Award. At Warrington, Emerson teaches both undergraduate and graduate students in courses such as Legal Aspects of Technology Management, Business Law, and the Legal Environment of Business. The undergraduate Legal Environment course regularly has an enrollment of 650 to 700 students. Including summers, Emerson has taught approximately 65,000 students – enough to fill a large stadium.
In addition to his professorship at Warrington, Emerson is an Affiliate Professor with the Center for European Studies in the University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In 2008, Emerson was inducted as an inaugural member of the Conseil Scientifique for the Union Internationale des Huissiers de Justice (UIHJ) – the Scientific Council for the International Union of Justice Officers. He is the sole member from North America in the 10-person council, advising the 100 nation, Paris-based body that aims to promote model laws, advocate for treaties as well as for efficient and effective national and international procedural and enforcement law, including reforms, promoting legislation and professional projects and initiatives to elevate the effectiveness and independence of judicial officers. Emerson has also served as the Reporter (Editor) for the UIHJ’s triennial conference and proceedings.
Prof. Emerson received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his bachelor’s degree in political science from Sewanee: The University of the South. He is a member of the bar, having practiced law for many years before becoming a full-time academic. Emerson remains active in the American Bar Association, especially its Forum on Franchising, ever hopeful that his role as a professor with practical experience, and decades of researching and teaching, will help him to advocate for great improvements in the law and in the legal profession.
Michelle Bloom-Lugo
Bloom-Lugo is the Director of Undergraduate Business Career Services at the Warrington College of Business. She brings more than two decades of experience in career counseling, executive search, and program management to the role. She leads a team of professionals obsessed with helping students connect with employers to leverage their strengths into great jobs.
Prior to joining the University of Florida, her career included corporate recruiting for finance, technology and human resources roles. She successfully executed searches for major Fortune 500 companies, including many investment banking firms headquartered in New York. Within the Business Career Services team, she has coached MBA Executive and Professional students as well as specialized master’s students.
Bloom-Lugo is active in both community and professional associations. She is a former board president for Peaceful Paths, which provides support to families who are victims of domestic abuse. She is also a Volunteer Coordinator for the annual Leadership Expo sponsored by the Gainesville Black Professionals and has been published in the Gainesville Magazine Synergy.
Michael Ricci
Ricci is an assistant professor in the Fisher School of Accounting. He teaches three graduate courses that include Auditing I and II, which cover the fundamentals of financial statement auditing and Information Systems Assurance, which covers various ways auditing and information technology intersect. For his contributions in the classroom, Ricci received the 2022 J. Michael Cook Teaching Excellence Award.
When Ricci is not teaching, he conducts original research on auditing-related topics using psychology-style experiments. He is interested in auditor-client cooperation, and the effects of high-quality client service on audit outcomes. Ricci also examines how features of the auditing environment, such as documentation requirements, audit programs and remote work affect the quality of auditors’ judgments and decisions.
Prior to his work in academia, Ricci was an internal auditor at Red Hat, Inc. and an audit senior at KPMG. Ricci received his Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Georgia in December 2017. He also earned his Master of Accountancy degree at the University of North Carolina and has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wake Forest University.
Lena Rabe
Rabe is the Associate Director and Academic Advisor for the Master of Science in Management (MSM) program. Over the past two years, Rabe has advised hundreds of students in both the MS Management and the MS Marketing program. She has been with the Master of International Business /MSM/MS Marketing department since 2017, first serving as office manager and admissions coordinator before her current role. She began working at UF in 2014 as a coordinator for the office of Student Financial Affairs, specifically assigned to work with Hough graduate students.
Recent program alumni praise Rabe for her compassion, empathy, knowledge, and the ability to reassure and give confidence when it matters most. From helping students in graduate programs to serving the local community, supporting, and building up others is Rabe’s passion. “I am always wanting to do better, be better and help others,” said Rabe. This passion extends beyond UF, as she is an active board member for Gainesville AMIKids, an organization that is dedicated to helping kids discover the potential within, transform their lives and strengthen our community.
Rabe is a proud Gator grad, having earned her master’s degree in Educational Technology. She is also a born-and-raised Floridian. “As a Florida native, it was always a goal of mine to be a UF Gator, and now I help build the great gator nation.”
